A cat shocked its owners by walking through the cat flap – days after it was meant to have been cremated.
Nicci Knight, from Newby, North Yorkshire, was on holiday with her husband, Maaz, and their four children in Turkey when she was told by her neighbours that they had found her cat, Ted, drowned in their pond.
The family was relaxing by the pool in the resort of Dalaman when the message came through on Nicci’s mobile phone – via her video doorbell camera, that their beloved family pet was dead.
Her neighbours, who were minding the cat while the family were away on holiday, even held up five-year-old Ted’s distinctive black and white body to the camera as proof of his untimely passing.
Speaking to BBC News, Nicci said: ‘I had to break the news to my husband and our four children and we were all absolutely devastated, because Ted is a huge personality and a beloved member of the family.’
Nicci Knight, from Newby, North Yorkshire, was on holiday with her husband, Maaz, and their four children in Turkey when she was told by her neighbours they had found her cat, Ted, (pictured) drowned in their pond
After getting over the initial shock Nicci quickly arranged for Heavenly Pets Crematorium to collect the body and cremate it, as she didn’t want to burden her neighbour with Ted’s body.
However, four days later, Ted shocked the cat sitters by walking through the cat flap of their home.
The neighbour had to make yet another ghastly, yet bittersweet, phone call to the family in Turkey.
Nicci said: ‘I didn’t believe it at first, I had to get her to FaceTime me live so that I could see that Ted was actually alive.’
Adding: ‘I’ve paid £130 to cremate someone else’s cat.’ When she later went to collect the other cat’s ashes, she saw the box had been labelled ‘Not Dead Ted’.
Nicci went to the pet crematorium only to be given a memory bag including the unknown cat’s ashes, framed paw-print, nose prints, a tiny jar with a fur sample, a sympathy card, packet of forget-me-not seeds, and an official certificate of cremation.
The family have not been able to trace the owner of the dead cat, and reckon he must be a local farm cat but no one had yet claimed his ashes.
The family are ecstatic to have Ted back and said they have been through ‘a rollercoaster of emotions’.
After getting over the initial shock Nicci quickly arranged for Heavenly Pets Crematorium to collect the body and cremate it, as she didn’t want to burden her neighbour with Ted’s body
The crematorium later confirmed that they would be donating the cremation fee to a local cat rescue centre.
In the meantime, Ted’s enjoying life back home and is none the wiser of the family’s emotional turmoil.
However this isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2021, another family were left shocked when their pet cat miraculously returned home after they believed he had been cremated.
Rachel Fitzsimons, 40, from Stretton, Cheshire, and her family were devastated when their 16-year-old pet cat, Frankie, failed to come home on May 19.
She searched for the cat with husband, John, and their children, Thea, 10, and Remy, seven, and eventually spotted a dead cat on the hard shoulder of the motorway which they believed might be him.
Rachel organised a creamtation to help give her children ‘closure’, but the family were left shocked when Frankie strolled back home unharmed 22 days after going missing.
Rachel said: ‘We drove past a few times, obviously at speed, but the cat looked like Frankie.
The framed paw-print which Heavenly Pets Crematorium arranged for the family of the unknown cat
‘My husband managed to get a photo too, but the cat was very badly injured and hard to identify.’
After giving a description of the cat, which was a fluffy tabby with a white tummy, the Highways Agency went out to look for the body, and the dead cat matched.
She added: ‘They couldn’t chip it because it had been decapitated. We live very close to the motorway, so it seemed likely that it was our cat.
‘We went to collect the body, and of course didn’t look at it because it was too distressing.’
Rachel paid for a cremation, believing it would help to give her children a chance to grieve. She said: ‘Remy usually slept with Frankie on his bed every night, so he was distraught when he went missing. He cried and cried.
‘When we got the ashes, Remy put them by his bed. We were all in tears for days afterwards.’
But 22 days after Frankie first went missing – he miraculously strolled back from the dead, as if nothing had happened.
Rachel says: ”My husband heard a meow outside and then I heard him shouting. We all ran out and there was Frankie!
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